The Tasmanian University Dive Club loaded the boat (Thumpin Willy) with four mad keen divers last weekend and launched from White Beach, on the south-east coast of Tasmania, with a bearing for Wedge Island.

With the purpose of surveying two sites, monitoring for urchin barrens and determining whether the dominant species in each barren is Heliocidaris erythrogramma (Common Urchin and native to Tasmania) or whether the introduced species Centrostephanus rodgersii is making it’s way down the east coast of Tasmania and slowing taking hold in the channel and inland waters of southern Tasmania.

The Centrostephanus urchin is an agressive species and in large numbers can/does cause catastrophic damage to marine habitats, inhaling kelp and algal cover which destroys the homes of hundreds if not thousands of fish and macroinvertebrates throughout the state.

A major hurdle for research of this type is that the introduced urchin is making its way down the coastal waters naturally via the East Australia Current. Whether this is due to warmer waters combined with climate change is yet to be proven. Our help with the research merely monitors the habitats around our state and we are helping build on the existing database of valuable location and migration data.

How can you help or get involved?

Its easy, and you don’t need heavy training. Check out the urchin survey website here: http://www.otsweb.net/SubmitaDiveReport/ReportaDiveSocialDive/tabid/660/language/en-US/Default.aspx.

Have a look through the website information and on every dive you complete, no matter where you dive in Tasmania, you can report on the general bottom cover (algal, kelp, barren rock), animals you see, and the biggest item we are after is how many urchin barrens (basically bare rock with urchins surrounding it, hiding in crevasses) and how many urchins exist in the immediate area, as well as the type of urchin. If you are keen to get involved, get onto the website above and check it out.